| Glenn's Florence Journals #7 4-19-02 Friday we had separate agendas that we had to attend to. I was off to Bologna to collect mail that had not arrived by the time we had left last week and Erin was going to work on the website, buy a new book, and wash laundry while I was away. First things first though!! We stopped in to the internet cafe to get all of our latest journals and pictures downloaded to the website. This is a task that I had not previously shown Erin. Once the journals and pictures were in the file manager then we could work with them at any time. We walked into the place around 9:30 a.m. and I finally left around 11:30 a.m. to catch a train to Bologna. Erin ended up working on the website, including editing pictures and posting journals, until 7:30 p.m. when her internet card had run out. To say the least, she definitely spent a good amount of time on the website. As for me, I caught the 12:13 train arriving in Bologna around 1:00 (This was a Eurostar, not the regular trains that we had been taking). Upon arriving in Bologna my goals were to retrieve the mail, go to the Ducate Motorcycle Factory and Museum, and go to the youth hostel where we had stayed the week before (had left our hostel cards). Well, off to information to obtain another map of the city so I could find my way around again. I also needed information on the Ducate tours. I knew the hostel did not re-open until 5:00 so I would do that last. I would not mind catching an early train back if possible. Information was helpful as I gathered all that I needed to know. By now I was hungry so I grabbed a panini to eat and sat on the steps of the Duomo enjoying the beautifully warm and sunny day. I then needed to call the Ducate museum to verify a reservation on the afternoon tour for 4:00. I realized that Erin had the phone card so I had to buy my own. No big deal as they cost 5 Euro 16 for a 90 minute phone card that was good to call all over Europe, the U.S., and Australia from Europe. I went off, made the phone call only to find no one available to take my reservation. I was asked to call back later so I obliged even though it was already 2:30 in the afternoon. Now I was off to the Piazza Minghetti to collect the mail. My parents had mailed a letter 15 days earlier as "priority mail" and were told it would take 3 to 5 days. When we checked last week after 5 days it had not arrived. Now it had been 15 days and I am positive it will be there. Wrong!!! I asked the clerks to check a few times but to no avail. They were nice enough to take my name and write a note to hold the mail until we could return sometime towards the end of May. Amazing!!! A little disappointed, I went back to the Piazza Maggiore to make the phone call to Ducate and, hopefully catch a bus out to the factory. A young lady answered and replied with no problem for me to attend the tour today. I quickly zipped off to catch a bus out of town as that is where the Ducate factory is. Well, with my ability to locate the right bus stop, wait for the bus, and for the bus ride out of town, I was a half hour late. No worries as the museum tour started at 5:00 (the factory tour started at 4:00). I joined in with the group that had just completed the factory tour for a guided tour through the museum. The young lady was well informed about the topic and, with a little accent, provided a very enlightening tour. After the tour I continued to look around at some of the motorcycles and video clips that I had not had time while on the tour to enjoy. I was on my way out when I ran into the young lady that had given the museum tour. I mentioned that I had enjoyed her tour but had missed the factory tour due to my tardiness. She invited me back any time (that they were open) to visit again. I mentioned that I did not know when that would be but thanked her for her time. It had started to rain while I had been inside, but luckily had brought my raincoat. As we were walking away to leave she nicely invited me in to take a personal, one-on-one, tour of the factory. I quickly took her up on the offer and off we went. The factory tour was fantastic, at least for us factory guys who enjoy talking about turn times, material flow, and daily rates. It was interesting to know that they produced over 200 motorcycles a day. This included turn times on engines of 40 and 60 minutes depending on the model. They also had "supermarkets" and carts laid out to hold all of the material you need for one engine at a time. They had done a lot of outsourcing and most of the raw material was from outside vendors. They had mixed model manufacturing lines depending on the orders and only carried 3 days of inventory in the store room at any one time. I thought of quite a few of the technicians at my old place of employment while watching the technicians test each and every completed Ducate motorcycle that comes off the line. I am pretty sure the technicians that I worked with would enjoy that much more than testing avionics hardware. I truly enjoyed the factory tour and again thanked her for the personal tour of the factory. I scurried off to catch a bus back into town so I could catch another bus back out of town in the other direction to the youth hostel. I arrived at the hostel, gathered up our hostel cards, and returned to the bus stop to catch the next bus back into town. This took over an hour to accomplish. Once in town I purchased a ticket for the next train back to Florence. I made it home around 9:30, went back out to pick up dinner (Chinese tonight) and returned home for the night. Erin told me a little about her day, we folded laundry, and I went to bed while she finished watching another movie. |
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